Armor Pen vs Power: which is better for pvp?

sara · March 2016

Hey guys,

I'm a gf playing on Xbox one but needed your sound input, currently sitting at 20k arm pen (roughly) and 14k power (roughly)

Not sure where to go from here? Remove some darks and stack rads?

I haven't even decided on a new artifact weapon set. Drowned or twisted.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

jhpnw · March 2016

What class will make a difference on you question

scylent · March 2016

Like jhpnw said. class will make a lot of difference as to what is better TRs for instance have some of his main skills ignoring a percentage of resistance. Other classes as well to a lesser extent. The deal is that you want to penetrate enough of the enemy defences enough to do damage, low arpen high power can do the trick, but with variable inconsistent effect. Meaning if you get debuffed your power will suffer, so much of your damage may get mitigated, while I dont believe there is anything that can negate the amount of resistances ignored (unless they are capped at the 80% plus a ton of tenacity darn OPs) Unless you have a ungodly amount of power which some people out there do. But when you stack arpen you know you are ignoring a certain amount and allowing your power to do the rest. Then the occasional crit may help that was well.

Anyways that is what I have gathered so far in my limited exposure to pvp mechanics.

ltgamesttv · March 2016

Arm pen is best against low DR targets, Power is best against High DR targets. Most classes should stack power or power and crit. The exception being GWFs who can super stack power by stacking armpen because of their feats which give them power from arm pen, recovery, and defense.

sara · March 2016

Wow guys. Great responses. Keep'em coming. You def. helped with my decision to continue stacking arm pen. As it is easier to get power by other means.

200 arm pen equals 1% damage where 400 power equals 1% I believe.

jonkoca · March 2016

Afaik, max useful resistance ignored for pvp assuming your opponent is wearing lionsmane, has a rosegold ring and is using a trans negation is

Roughly 65 to negate arpen resist due to tenacity
Roughly 40-45 to get through tenacity defence
30 to get past 10 stacks of negation

For a grand total of 140%RI. Any more than that and you're just wasting stats.

I used to stack arpen like crazy 154% was as high as I ever went. But these days I've scaled it back to about 100%. Basically in pugpvp land, not everyone has full pvp gear, and not everyone has trans neg, and even if they do, it takes time to stack, on your first hit, it basically isn't there.

20k sounds like way way too much. I have about 11k and call it good. GFs might be a special case to crack, but I don't know the class well enough to comment. If I were you, drop some arpen aand stack some more power.

sara · March 2016

Ya I'm at 158% and only at Dark 11's. I'll be unlocking one more offense this slot this double refinement. I'll prolly stick a rad in.

ltgamesttv · March 2016

If I were you I'd drop almost all my armor pen and go straight up power m8. GF hit's like a freaking truck with power.

rayrdan · March 2016

tolkienbuff said:
Arm pen is best against low DR targets, Power is best against High DR targets. Most classes should stack power or power and crit. The exception being GWFs who can super stack power by stacking armpen because of their feats which give them power from arm pen, recovery, and defense.

my calcs showed that power is best vs enemies with both tenacity rings, otherwise power becomes better than armor pen when arp reaches 16k. Exception being vs classes able to reach 90%+ dr

jhpnw · March 2016

I really like the new vicious enchants power/arpen offense and lifesteal/ deflect for defense I mix those with savage for defense and brutals for offense things change so fast the dual ability stones save me a small fortune since they cover many bases as far as Arm pen I would not stack over 150% and if anything other than GF not over 130% pve is maxed @ 60 % RI and I see few PVP over 130%

dsn1118 · March 2016

I dont know if Xbox stats work same as here but he say he has 20k arPen.MY GF has 10.5k arpen and raw stat is 90% and it increases to 101% with dexterity.I dont know what is your build but I think you have at least 170% or maybe more arpen.I havent build anything for PVP recently but isnt it a little bit excessive?

sara · March 2016

tolkienbuff said:
If I were you I'd drop almost all my armor pen and go straight up power m8. GF hit's like a freaking truck with power.

But I hit like a truck now!

ltgamesttv · March 2016

sara#4631 said:

tolkienbuff said:
If I were you I'd drop almost all my armor pen and go straight up power m8. GF hit's like a freaking truck with power.
But I hit like a truck now!

We have done extensive testing for Arm Pen vs Power. I'm just trying to help you out brah :P

primaxal1 · March 2016

if your enemy has 65% or less armor pen resist, go with armor penetration, if more than 65% go with power. In the end its not that much diffrence. 4k arm pen on a target with 65% armpen resist should give around 12.5% more dmg, on 70% arm pen resist it gives 9% dmg. while power always gives 10% dmg.

sara · March 2016

Can someone explain how mount bonus insignias work? Are they active in pvp Dom? Just one active or can you give active like companions?

jonkoca · March 2016

They all work in pvp dom. All 5.

Armor Pen vs Power: which is better for pvp?

Comments